Somewhere within the sprawl of Inland Empire, California that runs east of Los Angeles to the Joshua Tree desert, a six-year-old Ben Harper was given his first guitar. "It was a cheap nylon string classical model," he recalls. "I'm not sure if I spent as much time playing it as I did riding my bike over it."

Harper was born into a musical family. Before moving west, his grandparents hung around with the Seegers and other members of the first family of East Coast folk music; his grandfather somehow ended up with Woody Guthrie's guitar but sold it. "My dad played percussion, and my mom and grandmother played guitar and sang, and they all had tremendous record collections," says Harper. "Their love of music was a huge part of growing up for me."

As a teenager, Harper began to explore the music he'd been exposed to as a child in greater depth. Playing at coffee houses and open mic nights, he developed a musical style that encompassed rock, blues, folk, reggae, Gospel, and funk. When he stumbled upon the Weissenborn, an early 20th century German-made acoustic lap steel guitar, Harper found the mode of expression that would set him apart from the blues/folk circuit. By his early twenties he was touring with Taj Mahal, and a record deal with Virgin soon followed.

In 1994, Harper released Welcome To The Cruel World, followed by Fight For Your Mind (1995), The Will To Live (1997), Burn To Shine (1999), and his most recent issue Live From Mars (2001). His records play with the dynamics of a classical composition, with Harper pushing his slide guitar from steely bottleneck blues to ruminating folk to ferocious, feedback-drenched jams. Driven by the powerhouse rhythm section of bassist Juan Nelson and drummer Dean Butterworth, Harper's explosive live shows have led him to open for Pearl Jam, PJ Harvey, the Fugees, not to mention stints on the HORDE Tour, exposing a new generation to roots and blues.

Experience Hendrix: You've played with so many different kinds of bands—do you think young rock audiences are more receptive to the cross-genre music you make than they would've been a few years ago?

Ben Harper: It seems like they are. I think megastores having sections of roots, blues, and soul music that are as big as the record stores used to be has something to do with it. Availability is a factor; when they walk into a store, they can get this music easily. It's great to come across kids who know about Ike Turner and Robert Johnson.

EH: Who were some of the bands that excited you when you first started playing?

BH: Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles, first and foremost. They set the standard. If you ever expect to be good in your musical endeavors, you have to somehow reflect what both of those groups did, just a little bit.

EH: At what point did you get into the blues, and who did you listen to?

BH: I didn't really sink into that until I was in my late teens. That was when I really started listening to some of the music I'd grown up around and studying it. That's when I started playing slide. At the time, I was listening to a lot of Bukka White and Blind Willie Johnson.

EH: Did switching from regular guitar to slide shape your songwriting at all?

BH: It stunted my songwriting for a little while at first, because I spent a good year or two just woodshedding, learning slide guitar from the older players. I got into traditional Delta blues tunes in my early twenties. After playing coffeehouses and open mics for a year or two I gained confidence on slide guitar and started writing tunes.

EH: Did you ever play any other instruments?

BH: I played drums for a little while when I was about 9. I was in a band and the drummer was so bad that I thought it would be quicker for me to learn drums and for him to learn three or four chords on guitar. It didn't last that long, but that's one of the best parts of being young—going from idea to idea, and experimentation.

EH: You're still doing that with your music. Has it been difficult to experiment within the confines of being attached to a major label?

BH: No, because I came into this coming and going as I pleased. Those were the terms of the agreement from the start—freedom of musical and artistic expression, from the songs to the graphic design of albums; all that stuff was in writing. Part of doing what I've been able to do has to do with my manager. We've been friends for more than 20 years, and he's tenacious; he won't settle. But I think the music industry has a bad rap on one hand because a lot of people come into it wanting to be made into something, needing or wanting direction. I knew what I wanted the music I make to sound like.

EH: The cornerstone of your music has been the Weissenborn, your acoustic lap steel. How do you get so many sounds out of an acoustic guitar; what kinds of effects and amps do you run it through?

BH: I run it through a bunch of different effects, like Vox wah wah, distortion pedal, and Echoplexes. I use a 150 Groove Tube amp and Sunrise pickups built by Jim Kaufman. But I play other guitars too; I used a '60s Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster on The Will To Live. I've also been playing a new guitar built by Bill Ascher that I'm really excited about. It's a semi- hollowbody version of a Weissenborn, built like a Strat or Les Paul but with hollow chambers. I'm going to start playing it live a lot more.

EH: You won't get all of your cool acoustic feedback.

BH: Well, once you push acoustic instruments over a certain db level, they lose something sonically. The frequencies aren't quite as clear, plus you start rattling the insides out. With solid body or semi-hollowbody guitars, you can hit higher volumes with clearer frequency range because you don't have all that hollow mass. I think I've pushed the limits of acoustic feedback as far as I can without having the instruments blow up in my lap!

EH: Will you play these other guitars standing up?

BH: No, that's the one thing that will never change; there will be no standing-up gigs for Ben Harper! I admire anyone who can stand up straight, sing and play. That would make me completely uncomfortable.

EH: Listening to your new live EP, it sounds like you manage to achieve a pretty high excitement level for someone who remains seated during the show.

BH: Yeah, we put that out because the live shows have been getting such a strong response. At this point, we've played in front of more people than records we've sold. We've done as many as 200 shows a year, but that doesn't include in stores and radio stop-overs. In five years of touring, I've never had more than two weeks off. The only time I've taken off is to make records, and that's not really time off.

EH: You have to write on the road if you're always touring.

BH: Exactly. I do what I have to do. I don't mind writing on the road because it's a stimulating environment, but I think I'd finally get a chance to get my mind around some pretty good ideas if I had a little more time.

EH: You've been quoted as saying that people who are not bettering themselves should be doing something different with their lives. How does that hold true for you?

BH: By not settling for what I've done in the past, by knowing that I can do better than what I've done. People should be proud of their accomplishments but not rest on them. I think discipline is a really important part of growth.

When I'm practing, I try to not practice the obvious, to not practice what I'm good at. I always push my vocals, because that's where I need to get more confident, so I'll play songs in higher keys instead of where it's comfortable to widen my range. The more you involve yourself in whatever it is that you do, the better you'll become. For me it's music, so I listen to a lot of music, and I'm always looking for something new, bringing in influences from different, not obvious, places.

EH: Is there anything you're especially proud of?

BH: Yeah, I'm going to record with John Lee Hooker for his new album; I'm going to play guitar and maybe even sing a little. Isn't that the bomb!

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